a thick paste before application, is used for the protection of the bottoms of ships; and the coating is said to last a year. [199] [Wax.] Wax is bartered by the Cimarronese.  The whole of Samar annually yields from two hundred to three hundred piculs, whose value ranges between twenty-five and fifty dollars per picul, while in Manila the price is generally five to ten dollars higher; but it fluctuates very much, as the same product is brought from many other localities and at very irregular intervals of time.

[Scarcity of stock.] There is hardly any breeding of cattle, notwithstanding the luxuriant growth of grasses and the absence of destructive animals.  Horses and carabao are very rare, and are said to have been introduced late, not before the present century.  As in Samar there are hardly any other country roads than the seashore and the shallow beds of rivers (it is better in the north of Leyte), the carabao is used only once every year in treading over the earth of the rice-field.  During the year he roams at large on the pastures, in the forest, or on a small island, where such exists, in the neighborhood.  Some times in the year one may see several carabaos, attached to the large trunk of a tree, dragging it to the village.  Their number, consequently, is extremely small.  Carabaos which tread the rice land well are worth as much as ten dollars.  The mean price is three dollars for a carabao, and five to six dollars for a caraballa.  Horned cattle are only occasionally used as victims at festivals.  The property of several owners, they are very limited in number, and live half-wild in the mountains.  There is hardly any trade in them, but the average price is three dollars for a heifer, and five or six dollars for a cow. [Swine.] Almost every family possesses a pig; some, three or four of them.  A fat pig costs six or seven dollars, even more than a cow.  Many Filipino tribes abstain strictly from beef; but pork is essential to their feasts.  Grease, too, is so dear that from three to four dollars would, under favorable circumstances, be got on that account for a fat animal. [Sheep and goats.] Sheep and goats thrive well, and propagate easily, but also exist only in small numbers, and are hardly utilized either for their wool or their flesh.  Creoles and mestizos are for the most part too idle even to keep sheep, preferring daily to eat chicken.  The sheep of Shanghai, imported by the governor of Tacloban, also thrive and propagate famously. [Poultry.] A laying hen costs half a real, a rooster the same, and a game cock as much as three dollars, often considerably more.  Six or eight hens, or thirty eggs, may be bought for one real.